The Slender-billed Curlew has only been confirmed breeding near Tara, north of Omsk in Siberia, between 1909-1925. It migrates west-south-west and a few reached the last known regular wintering site, Merja Zerga in Morocco, every year until 1995. Ever since records have become few, far between and less convincing. The last record accepted by a national committee is from Hungary in April 2001. The population is now thought to be lower than 50 birds. The recording shared by Adam Gretton is the only known sound recording of the species. He also shares a judiciously enhanced version, XC398794. Convince yourself it is the same cut!

What is xeno-canto?

xeno-canto is a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the
world. Whether you are a research scientist, a birder, or simply curious
about a sound that you heard out your kitchen window, we invite you to
listen, download, and explore the bird sound recordings in the collection.

But xeno-canto is more than just a collection of recordings. It is also a
collaborative project. We invite you to share your own bird recordings, help
identify mystery recordings, or share your expertise in the forums. Welcome!

Latest News

June 2, 2020

Arnon Dattner livens up XC's third lustrum with four new species from Angola. Thanks for sharing, Arnon! We hope there's more on the way from that corner of Africa.

Indeed Bob. Fifteen years. And kicking! And yes, ID's include foreground species and background species that have been entered. It's a more concise way of decribing that :-)

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 28

Congratulations, gentlemen! But also: take care. Teenagers can be unruly characters sometimes.

Rolf A. de By on May 28

Haha,true!

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 28

Congrats! Your contribution to our knowledge of avian acoustics and your role in bringing sound recording to the global birding community cannot be overstated - something to be truly proud of. I certainly feel privileged to have been part of this incredible effort since the early days, and very much look forward to the next 15 years.

It looks like some, but not all, users are experiencing very slow response of the site. We're working on it.

Should be much better now.

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 21

My password for logging inn is not working anymore in the Firefox browser, even after using the last generated password from xeno-canto.org. Is it being hacked or are the safety at xeno-canto out of control ?

Elias A. Ryberg on May 23

hi Elias, I'd think there could be other possible explanations, don't you? Drop us a line on the contact address and we'll try to get you sorted.

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 23

oh, and I forgot to ask the obvious question: you must be logged in because you can post on the front page. How did you do that without the password?

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 23

yes, and without being logged inn....

Elias A. Ryberg on May 24

I asked for a new password and finally, got it. I think it is working find now

Elias A. Ryberg on May 24

Excellent.

Willem-Pier Vellinga on May 24

I tried to upload sounds, first I marked the location...it'doent go beyond that. Next page doesn't open.

Latest New Species

Try this!

Using Audacity

Audacity is a freely available software package that lets you analyse and visualise XC recordings. XC recordist Volker Arnold wrote : a manual. Stein Ø. Nilsen wrote another article on filters in Audacity. Very useful!